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African nations sow seeds of hope

TWELVE African countries are drawing up a plan to help each other if
civil unrest or drought threaten to destroy their crops. Each country will hold
stocks of seed that can be used to replenish those of a neighbour struck by
disaster.

The move follows the success of the Seeds of Hope programme, which helped to
kick-start Rwanda’s agriculture after the civil war of 1994 and saved it from
losing many of its unique varieties of crop plants.

“It’s not a question of if these 12 countries suffer a disaster, it’s a
question of when,” William Scowcroft told last week’s ANZAAS meeting. “The
supply of seed—and hence their ability to feed their people—will be
under threat. Unless the seed can be guaranteed, many people will starve.”

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Ten of the countries—Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda—are part of the Greater Horn
of Africa. At no time between 1979 and 1994 has the region been entirely free of
either drought or civil unrest (seeDiagram). The other two countries are
Madagascar and Zaire. The directors of agricultural research for the 12 nations
have formed a group called the Association for Strengthening Agricultural
Research in East and Central Africa.

The association is considering a plan to protect the genetic diversity of
crop plants put to them last month by Scowcroft. Unique local varieties of crop
species are adapted to often highly specific conditions and have developed a
degree of resistance to local pests and diseases. This makes it important to
preserve as many of these indigenous varieties as possible, said Scowcroft.

Scowcroft, a plant geneticist at the Australian National University in
Canberra, was a key player in the Seeds of Hope project (This Week, 27 August
1994, p 5). At the time he was deputy director of the International Centre for
Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia, which coordinated the Rwandan
effort.

Scowcroft told the meeting that the Seeds of Hope programme, which began soon
after the civil war in Rwanda ended in July 1994, has been able to deliver seeds
into the hands of at least 40 per cent of Rwanda’s farmers. “That’s enough to
prime the pump,” he said.

During the civil war, in which 800 000 people were killed and millions fled
their homes, only about half the prewar population of 8 million was able to
produce food. The harvest of grain crops such as maize, beans and sorghum, fell
by 60 per cent. The country’s agricultural research institute where 55
scientists once worked, had two staff left.

Seeds from Rwanda held in seedbanks in India, Mexico, Colombia, Burundi,
Uganda and Kenya were multiplied, by planting stored grains and harvesting the
next crop. They were delivered to farmers by aid organisations such as World
Vision, CARE, the Catholic Relief Service, the World Bank and Swiss Disaster
Relief. Despite their success, Scowcroft told ANZAAS, there were many lessons
learnt which he has included in his proposals.

One of the biggest needs is for a database of information on where particular
seeds are held, and the conditions that suit the different varieties. “In some
cases seeds suited to the lowlands were delivered by mistake to highland areas
and they didn’t grow,” he said.

The database, which would include maps, should be made available to
agricultural organisations and nongovernmental organisations in East Africa and
overseas. “The NGOs were very good at delivery, but they often didn’t know where
to get the seeds in a hurry and where they should go,” said Scowcroft.

Most seedbanks hold seed at very low temperatures, but they need to think of
cheap and simple alternatives, such as keeping seeds in bottles or drums sealed
with paraffin wax. “In a civil uprising the first thing that will go will be the
power supply, so seeds kept in cold rooms could be useless,” said Scowcroft.
Identification of seeds also needs to be standardised. “In some cases, the same
seed has four or five different names and that led to confusion,” he said.